Wichita Language Class

Two of the WCEP winners at the 2018 Oklahoma Native American
Youth Language Fair. From left: Hayden Hill, first place winner in
Grades 3-5 Individual Spoken Prayer; and Brianna Hill, first place
winner in Grades 3-5 Individual Traditional Song.

Class Instructor

Gary McAdams

ABOUT THE WICHITA LANGUAGE

There are many ways in which Wichita
is a very special language, compared with other languages from
around the world. The sound system is extraordinarily simple;
almost no other language has so few different sounds. But the way
in which words change their pronunciation in different sentences is
exceptionally complex, and the internal structure of individual
words (what they are made of, and how those pieces fit together) is
more complex than that of any other language.

This group photo represents four categories where WCEP won
trophies at the 2018 Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair.
The following categories are: First Place--Grades 6-8 Small Group
Traditional Song (Leyla and Elizabeth Saldana); First Place--Grades
9-12 Individual Spoken Language (Charlie McAdams); First
Place--Grade 9-12 Large Group Traditional Song (Kitikiti'sh Little
Sisters); Second Place--Grades 9-12 Individual Modern Song
(Makennah McAdams); and Third Place--Small Group Traditional
Song--Wichita Young Man Society.

Wichita is closely related historically to Pawnee, Arikara, and
Kitsai. That means that some time in the past-- probably on the
order of 800 to 1200 years ago-- the ancestors of these four tribe
lived together and spoke one language, which then developed
differently among the different groups after they were no longer
living together. Some time even earlier than that, the ancestors of
these groups and those of the Caddo also formed one group.
Linguists have given the name Caddoan Family to this set of
languages, but there is no sense in which any of the modern
languages is older than any other-- they all go back to a single
group, much as all the branches of a tree go back to the trunk,
with no main branch being the source of any other branch, but
rather all deriving from the trunk.

(The above description description was written by Dr. David Rood
in the Introduction to Wichita Language Lessons, 1993.)